Climate Change Aspects Within SEA Proceedings
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Climate change aspects within SEA proceedings Austria: S 8 Marchfeld expressway (Morava- field expressway; Vienna – Bratislava) Case Study Justice and Environment 2012 a Dvorakova 13, 602 00, Brno, CZ e [email protected] t/f 36 1 3228462 / 36 1 4130300 w www.justiceandenvironment.org Climate change aspects within SEA proceedings Case study S 8 Marchfeld expressway (Morava-field expressway; Vienna – Bratislava) AUSTRIA SEA procedures are closely linked to new investments, projects, strategic planning, extension or adaptation of existing plants, roads etc. At strategic level, SEA influences the fundamental nature of the development. Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programs on the environment (SEA Directive) contains some reference to climate change, however, this is far from being proportionate to the gravity of the problem. On the other hand, arguments referring to the problem of climate change often are used to justify environmental destruction, e.g. in planning and building water or wind power plants in special protection areas or having critical water impacts. 2 1. Short summary of the plan and/or program1 1.1. Title S 8 Marchfeld expressway (Vienna – Bratislava) 1.2. Location Austria 1.3. Area for that the plan/program has been prepared The S8 Marchfeld expressway starts at the eastern border of Vienna (S1 Wiener Außenring Autobahn) and passes through Lower Austria to the border of Slovakia (Angern – Marchegg). The plan is the construction of a street-connection between the border of the provinces Vienna and Lower Austria and the border of Austria and Slovakia at Marchegg and Angern respectively. The aim of this strategic transport assessment is the incorporation of the S8 expressway as a high-level road connection into the Austrian Federal Roads Act. The construction of the planned road connection tracks to improve the infrastructure network Vienna and Bratislava (northern Danube). This plan is supplementing a larger road network consisting of various highways and motorways (“Regionenring”) which aims to develop the transport infrastructure in Eastern Austria, namely the region surrounding Vienna (“eastern region”). This street connection is expected to lead to: improve the cultural and economic relations between Austria and Slovakia; increase life quality for the inhabitants of the region; to foster economic development within the region; 1 Cp. Justice and Environment: SEA Case Study: December 2007: http://justiceandenvironment.org/_files/file/2009/06/sea-wp07-austria-case-study.pdf 3 Documentation concerning environmental aspects of the project focuses on an area of 30 x 30 square kilometers. This area is situated between Vienna in the west and the Austrian border in the east, between the town of Angern an der March in the north and to the Danube river in the south. The city of Bratislava is situated across the border in Slovakia.2 1.4. Developer Office of the government of Lower Austria3 Department General Transport Affairs Amt der NÖ Landesregierung, Gruppe Raumordnung, Umwelt und Verkehr Abteilung Gesamtverkehrsahngelegenheiten Landhausplatz 1/16 A-3109 St. Pölten Austria 2 See further remarks in: Justice and Environment SEA Case Study: December 2007: http://justiceandenvironment.org/_files/file/2009/06/sea-wp07-austria-case-study.pdf 3 http://www.noel.gv.at 4 1.5. Procedural Timeline S 8 Marchfeld Procedural Timeline expressway July 2004 – October Elaboration of the environmental report initiated by the 2005 provincial government of Lower Austria The environmental report is forwarded to the Austrian Transport 09 September 2005 Ministry Publication of the environmental report on the homepage of the 23 September 2005 ministry 23 September 2005 – Public participation 04 November 2005 23 February 2006 Publication of the summarizing statement Submission of the legislative proposal on the road in the national 29 March 2006 assembly 21 April 2006 Adoption of the legislative proposal in the federal assembly Publication of the decision in the official journal of the republic, 09 May 2006 date of entry into force Initiation of the EIA procedure for the Section West (from the link road S1 – Obersiebenbrunn/Gänserndorf) 19 July 2011 Afterwards EIA procedure for the Section East (Obersiebenbrunn/Gänserndorf – Marchegg/state boarder) 2014 Expected start of construction activity 2016 Expected completion of the project 2. Relevant national regulation 2.1. Which are the main provisions transposing the SEA Directive? The respective provisions concerning SEA proceedings in adoption of the SEA Directive have not been integrated in one general legal act in Austria. The SEA was incorporated in a variety of different laws. Due to varying competences between the federal state and the provinces, regulations concerning SEA can be found on federal and regional legislative level.4 The basic condition for an SEA procedure is that a legal provision has to ask for the development of the specific plan/program. 4 Alge/Kroiss in Raschauer/Wessely (Ed.), Handbuch Umweltrecht² 2010 (p. 390f) 5 2.2. Which domestic legislative, regulatory or administrative provision required the preparation of the plan/program? In Austria the relevant source of law as regards the transport sector is the Federal Roads Act5. The annex to the act lists the names of the existing and planned Austrian motorways. If a motorway wants to be constructed which cannot be found in the respective Annex to the Federal Roads Act the projected motorway can be included. Therefore a strategic assessment according to the Austrian Strategic Transport Assessment Act6 is obligatory. Afterwards an EIA procedure is to be carried out and special authorizations according to the Federal Roads Act (Art 4 /1 and Art 7/2) have to be enacted. The strategic assessment procedure according to the Austrian Strategic Transport Assessment Act (SP-V-G) consists of the following main steps: “Initiators” (e.g. the Minister for Transport, the Austrian ‘bundeslaender’, the ASFINAG7 etc.) propose a specific plan for the construction of a new motorway/railway (Art 4/1 SP-V-G). This proposal has to include an environmental report (Art 6 SP-V-G) which is created without participation of the public. The Minister for Transport decides on a case-by-case basis whether a strategic assessment is compulsory or not. The crucial question is, whether the plan will “presumably have significant effects” (Art 3/2 SP-V-G). The proposal for the transport infrastructure and the environmental report are to be published on the homepage of the Transport Ministry. The public then has the possibility to raise its opinion on the infrastructure within six weeks (Art 8/1 SP-V-G). The strategic assessment has to take into account both the environmental report and the statements. (Art 5/4 SP-V-G). The assessment is carried out by the Minister of Transport who prepares the draft legislation. A summarizing statement needs to include, amongst others, information on how environmental concerns and the environmental report as well as the statements issued by the public have been taken into account in the legislative draft.8 5 Federal Law Gazette I Nr. 286/1971, stF 6 Federal Law Gazette I Nr. 96/2005, stF 7 This state enterprise plans, finances, builds, maintains, and operates the entire Austrian motorway and highway system: http://www.asfinag.at 8 Cp. The explanations in Justice and Environment: SEA Case Study: December 2007: http://justiceandenvironment.org/_files/file/2009/06/sea-wp07-austria-case-study.pdf 6 2.3. Does the national regulation on SEA demand taking climate change aspects into consideration in environmental assessments? The environmental report identifies and evaluates the likely significant environmental impacts of the proposed infrastructure and reasonable alternatives that take into account the objectives and the geographical scope of the proposed network changes (cp. Art 6/1 SP- V-G) According to par 2 leg cit the environmental report must contain the following information in an appropriate detail for the proposed network changes: “(...) 8. a description of the likely significant environmental impacts, including impacts on aspects such as biodiversity, population, human health, fauna, flora, soil, water, air, climatic factors, (…)” According to the SP-V-G likely significant environmental impacts have to be assessed within the environmental report – climate change indeed is to be assessed as a possible significant environmental impact. Furthermore paragraph 2/8 of the mentioned provision explicitly refers to the assessment of climatic factors. According to Art 6/3 SP-V-G the Transport Minister may establish by regulation more detailed provisions for the environmental report, in consultation with the Ministry of Environment (MoE). The establishment of a more detailed assessment of climate change factors might be a possible application of this provision. 3. The plan/program 3.1. Do the main objectives of the plan/program concern climate change? If yes, in which context is climate change referred? 7 The main objectives of the network changes were: The improvement of the infrastructure network for individual motorized traffic between Vienna and Bratislava (northern Danube) Fostering the accessibility from the district capital Gänserndorf to the federal capital city Vienna Traffic relief of the highly polluted town links along the national highway B8 between Vienna and Angern/March. The plan was designed in support of the JORDES +9 project (Joint Regional Development Strategy for the Vienna-Bratislava-Györ Region) which is an EU project to promote cross- border regional development. Main goal of the project is to initiate a common growth process leading to the development of a competitive region (in this case Vienna – Bratislava) in the system of European regions. Although several spatial planning programs and plans for regional development were discussed in more detail in the section of the objectives of the plan, no national or international climate change programs and strategies (which indeed exist in a quite broad variety) were assessed or mentioned therein.